George Pataki in Fox News 2015 GOP primary debate

On Abortion:
Appalled by abortion, but stop trying to overturn Roe v.Wade

Q: With the recent Planned Parenthood videos that we have all seen, shedding new light on abortion practices, would you defund Planned Parenthood?

PATAKI: Yes.

Q:
Has this story changed your heart when it comes to abortion?

PATAKI: My heart has not changed, because I've always been appalled by abortion. I'm a Catholic, I believe life begins at conception.
But Roe v. Wade, it's has been the law for 42 years, and I don't think we should continue to try to change it. But we can do is defund
Planned Parenthood, and by the way, put in place an absolute permanent ban on any taxpayer dollars ever being used to fund abortions. Also, when you look at these videos, they are horrific and show just a hideous disrespect for life.

Source: Fox News/Facebook Second Tier debate transcript
Aug 6, 2015

On Abortion:
Pro-choice, but ban abortion after 20 weeks

Q: You're the only pro-choice candidate running; but how would you limit abortions?

PATAKI: We should believe in science.
Hillary Clinton's always saying how Republicans don't follow science. Well, they're the ones not listening to the scientists today, because doctors say that at 20 weeks that is a viable life inside the womb.
And at that point, it's a life that we have the right to protect, and I think we should protect. So, I would pass legislation outlawing abortion after 20 weeks.
It is Hillary, it is Biden, it is the others who insist on allowing abortion well into viability [who are] wrong, and that should be stopped.

Source: Fox News/Facebook Second Tier debate transcript
Aug 6, 2015

On Health Care:
Would have rejected Medicaid expansion for New York

Q [to Gov. Jindal]: Ohio Governor John Kasich took the federal money for Medicaid expansion under ObamaCare. You passed on those tax dollars. Why was he wrong?

JINDAL: I don't think anybody should be expanding Medicaid. It's a mistake to create new
and more expensive entitlement programs when we can't afford the ones we've got today.

Q [to Gov. Pataki]: Is Gov. Jindal right?

PATAKI: I think he is right. I don't think you expand entitlements when so many people are dependent
on government and when the money the federal government is offering is going to be taken away from you after just a couple of years.

Q: Would you have expanded ObamaCare in the state of New York, had you been governor at that time?

PATAKI: No, it should be repealed. And [on expanding entitlements], when I left, there were over 1 million fewer people on welfare in New York state than when I took office, replacing dependency with opportunity.

Source: Fox News/Facebook Second Tier debate transcript
Aug 6, 2015

On Homeland Security:
Preaching jihad is not protected speech, even in mosques

Q: How far are you willing to go to root out ISIS-inspired terrorists here at home? Would you put mosques, for example, under surveillance? Or is that against religious liberty?

PATAKI: Religious liberty doesn't include encouraging a fellow American to
engage in violent jihad and kill an American here. That is not protected free speech. That is not protected religious belief. That is like shouting "fire" in a crowded theater, and that is illegal, and I would do everything in our power not just to go
after those who are here who we know who are here, before they can radicalize other Americans to carry out attacks, and it's not just the ones they've arrested. We have to shut down their internet capability. We have to shut down, whether or not they're
in prisons preaching or in mosques preaching. No radical Islam that is allowed to engage in encouraging violence against Americans, that is not protected speech. We have got to destroy their training camps and recruiting centers.

Source: Fox News/Facebook Second Tier debate transcript
Aug 6, 2015

On Homeland Security:
Freeze government hiring except military & defense

Q: What would be your first executive order?

PATAKI: I defeated Mario Cuomo. In the first day in office, my first executive order, I revoked every one of the executive orders that he had enacted over the prior 12 years. I would do that to Barack
Obama's executive orders. But I'd sign a second one, as I did in New York, as well, having a hard hiring freeze on adding new employees except for the military or defense-related positions. I'd sign that executive order. I will do that in Washington.

Source: Fox News/Facebook Second Tier debate transcript
Aug 6, 2015

On Principles & Values:
I've seen government from the outside as well as the inside

Q: You called it quits in a race for the presidency in 2012. Mitt Romney declined to run this time, because he believed that the party needed new blood. Does he have a point?

PATAKI: I think he means somebody who hasn't been a career politician, and
who's been out of office for awhile. I think the last eight years in the private sector have allowed me to see government from the outside, and I think that is a positive thing. Yes, I thought about running four years ago. I was ready to lead, but
I wasn't ready to run. But I look at this country today, and I look at how divided we are. What I did in New York was bring people together. But I was able to get Democrats to support the most conservative sweeping policy changes in any state in America.
And when I look at Washington today, we need to bring us together. I can do that. And I can do it regardless of what the makeup of Congress is because I did it in New York state. So we need new leadership--yes. I will be that new leader.

Source: Fox News/Facebook Second Tier debate transcript
Aug 6, 2015

On War & Peace:
Risking American lives is necessary to destroy ISIS

I was governor of New York on 9/11. We are at greater risk today than at any time since then of another attack. We have got to destroy their training camps over there before they can attack us here. I don't agree that we're going to occupy and spend
another decade or a trillion dollars. What we need to do is destroy their ability to attack us here over there, and then get out. I would not place one American life at risk unless it was absolutely necessary. But to destroy ISIS, it is necessary.

PATAKI: The answer is no. I know this, because when I ran for governor, one in 11 of every New Yorker was on welfare. But I knew that good people who wanted to be a part of the American dream
have become trapped in dependency because the federal government and the state government had made it in their economic interest not to take a job because the benefits that they didn't work were better. I changed that. We put in place mandatory workfare.